nfl combine feb 26 – mar 4

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FMIA: The Combine Names to Know and How NFL Might Handle Kraft

The Lead: Combine

Now for a few takes on the 2019 crop of collegians:
The Best Player in the Draft

• Nick Bosa. Nick Bosa. Nick Bosa. “Injured his senior year in high school [torn ACL], injured this year [core muscle surgery], but he’s my highest-rated player,’’ Kiper said of the Ohio State defensive end. “Great bend, great motor.”

• Said Jeremiah: “When I watch Nick, I see the exact same moves as his brother [Chargers pass-rusher Joey Bosa].”

• Pluses: 17.5 sacks in 29 college games, great instinct. The minus: season-ending injuries in two of his past four football seasons.
The Quality

• “Really strong defensive draft,” Kiper said. “Deep at defensive line. Deep through three rounds. Good running back and receiver depth in rounds two through five.”
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• Jeremiah: “If you’re in the hunt for difference-makers on the defensive line, and overall depth on the offensive line … you’re going to feel great about this draft. Offensive line-wise, there’s no Joe Thomas, no Jonathan Ogden, but there’s depth.”

• For Jeremiah, 10 of his top 19 prospects in this draft are front-seven defensive players, including his top four: Bosa, Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, Kentucky pass rusher Josh Allen and Clemson defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.
Drew Lock. (Getty Images)
The Passers

Not the quality of 2018, when quarterbacks went 1-3-7-10-32 in round one. On his big board, Jeremiah has Kyler Murray 14th, Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins 18th, Missouri’s Drew Lock 26th and Duke’s Daniel Jones 32nd. Those are ratings, not a projection of where Jeremiah thinks they’ll go.

• I’m hearing Haskins and Murray, in some order, are solid top 10 picks. “Haskins is a pure pocket passer,” Jeremiah said. “If he were to have come out 10 years ago, we’d be talking about him as a surefire top five pick … He just doesn’t move around very well. When he has to move off his spot he really struggles.”

• Jeremiah loves Lock’s arm but not his overall mechanics. “His feel are kind of all over the place,” he said.

• On Jones, Jeremiah thinks his grade will be mixed on different draft boards, with team that want a power arm downgrading him.
The Injury Mysteries

• Oklahoma receiver Marquise Brown (Lisfranc foot surgery) won’t run full-speed till August, but he might have been the fastest guy at the combine had he been fit enough to run. “I remember scouting DeSean Jackson at Cal, and this is a clone,” Jeremiah said. Brown will be a late-first-round gift to some team.

• Mississippi State defensive Jeffery Simmons likely would have been a top 10 pick before tearing his ACL recently; how far he slides will be a big pre-draft story.

• Kiper loves Bryce Love, the Stanford running back recovering from December ACL surgery; Love could be a fourth-round bargain in a draft full of middle-round backs.
The Meat of the Draft
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Rounds two and three. It’s a good year to have six picks between 32 and 101, which is where the rich-get-richer Patriots find themselves. Said Jeremiah: “You look at the Baltimore Ravens picking at 22. They have no second-round pick. To me, if the Ravens pick at 22 I will buy you dinner the next time we’re together. I know the new GM, Eric DeCosta, taking over there from Ozzie Newsome, is a very bright guy. The value in this draft is in that second-round range. I would be surprised a team like Baltimore doesn’t take pick 22 and look to get out of there and see if they can flex some more picks there in that second-round range.”
The Skill Players

• General consensus: One back (Josh Jacobs of Alabama) in the top 20. There’s a feel that, in a league when 2016 Offensive Rookie of the Year Alvin Kamara was the 67th pick in a draft and 2016 NFL rushing champion Kareem Hunt was the 86th that you’re fine getting a good back—like Florida Atlantic’s Devin Singletary or Iowa State’s David Montgomery or Penn State’s Miles Sanders—somewhere between picks 40 and 100. “Running back value is in the second to the fifth round,” Kiper said.

• As for wideouts, it’s another deep year in the second and third rounds. Oklahoma’s Brown and Mississippi’s D.K. Metcalf lead the way on Jeremiah’s board.
T.J. Hockenson. (Getty Images)

• Interesting that Jeremiah has three tight ends among his top 25 players: Iowa’s T.J. Hockenson (5), Iowa’s Noah Fant (23) and Alabama Irv Smith Jr. (25). Yes, that’s two tight ends from Iowa in the first-round conversation. Fant will likely be the fastest tight end at the combine; he has run 4.64, And Hockenson is athletic with a Mark Bavaro-blocking streak. Add to that the fact that NFL teams love players from Iowa because they value coach Kirk Ferentz NFL-preparedness training. No school has ever produced two first-round tight ends in the same year.
Cautionary Tale

There won’t be many players who make or break anything in the next week, so throw anything you hear like that out of your mental window. I’ll tell you why. Last year, Oklahoma tackle Orlando Brown was Mayock’s number-two-rated tackle in the draft entering the combine, and he had a disastrous performance. He ran an Eisen-like 5.85 40-yard dash, and did a feeble 14 reps of the 225-pound bench press. Brown was ridiculed. The Ravens picked him in the third round. He played 15 games at tackle for Baltimore. Pro Football Focus had a higher 2018 grade for Brown than for the following zillionaire tackles: Trent Williams, Taylor Lewan, Jack Conklin, Nate Solder, Taylor Decker, Jason Peters and Cordy Glenn. So chill on conclusions drawn this week.

NFL Network’s complete coverage at the combine kicks off Monday, and position group coverage begins Friday. ESPN will have a live show from 1-3 p.m. featuring Kiper and other network analysts Saturday on ABC during the quarterback drills.

The NFL Scouting Combine can be broken down into four categories.

– Medicals
– Interviews
– Athletic Testing
– Measurements

Here are the key NFL prospects to watch in each category. Your complete guide to the 2019 Scouting Combine: https://t.co/ZQgy0rKtrq

— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) February 25, 2019

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
Watched some of the bench-pressing at the combine. Oddly fascinating. Guys lifting. Other guys cheering for guys lifting. Coaches watching guys lift and cheer. Plenty of grunting, mostly from guys lifting.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Agamemnon.

InvaderRam wrote:

dl and lb today.

dexter lawrence at 342 pounds just ran a 5.05 40.

wowsers. unfortunately he came up lame at the end of the run. he also threw up 36 reps on the bench press. with 34.75″ arms. i mean goodness. will have to wait until his pro day to see the rest of the numbers.

that’s the guy i want if he drops. he could given he tested positive for a ped. obviously, the rams would have to do their homework.

He is certainly in play, but what about Jeffery Simmons? I get the feeling that the Rams really want an edge guy, even if they resign Fowler.

JackPMiller wrote:

Player I’m keeping my eye on even if we resign Dante Fowler.

He would be fine. A number of mocks have him going to the Rams. I would rather take a chance on Simmons or trade down.

JackPMiller wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:

JackPMiller wrote:

Player I’m keeping my eye on even if we resign Dante Fowler.

He would be fine. A number of mocks have him going to the Rams. I would rather take a chance on Simmons or trade down.

Simmons is a little too light to play NT in the NFL. If we draft someone, I hope he has some size, not just hovering around 300 pounds. NTs should be at 315 at worst. Unless he takes over Michael Brockers spot as the Left DE in the 3/4.

I am drafting a superior Dline, I want that more than a nose tackle. I am going bpa.